# Southern hemispherical F/SF **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032 "2015-04-19T10:03:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/1 "2015-04-19T10:03:38Z")
I’m looking for fantasy or science fiction that takes place in the southern hemisphere of an extraterrestrial or imaginary planet. Or at least mainly in that hemisphere. So far I’ve found only two of them and I’m not 100% certain of one of them: The first is Bujold’s Five Gods Universe (_Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls_ and _The Hallowed Hunt_). The first story was based on actual Spanish history of the 15th century, but she rotated the map 180 degrees and dragged it to the southern hemisphere. Not that it really makes that much difference to the stories. The second is the one I’m not certain of: N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy (_The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms_, and _The Kingdoms of Gods_). (Why it’s called the Inheritance Trilogy is beyond me; there’s no special inheritance in these stories that I can see.) Anyway, the world this takes place on has two continents: Semn and the High North (there used to be another one, Maroland, but it was destroyed by a god.) Semn is quite clearly in a temperate zone with cold winters and hot summers. Most of the action occurs there in the capital city (named Sky, later renamed Shadow). The High North initially had me fooled. With a name like that, you tend to think of Arctic or subarctic locations (Norway or Alaska etc.), but its forests are described as being lush with lots of undergrowth (vines and whatnot) and one of the animals is a panther. But I haven’t been able to find anything that explcitly says Semn is in the southern hemisphere, or in the northern one either. Or any fact that absolutely requires it to be in one or the other. The High North looks tropical and Semn is further south, but since this is fantasy, the rules of worldbuilding are not necessarily the same as in our world. I’m about 99% certain Semn is in the southern hemisphere, though. Other than these two, part of Heinlein’s _Glory Road_ takes place in the southern hemisphere of some planet, but it’s not the main part of the story. So anyone know of any others? Surely the multiverse isn’t that biased towards the north. There must be others, right? PS I definitely recommend Jemisin’s books. I haven’t read any others besides these three, but they’re all good. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/2 "2015-04-19T10:56:49Z")
Well, in terms of films, there’s [The Quiet Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/), a favourite of mine. Made and set in New Zealand. The Mad Max films, of course, were all made and set in Australia. District 9 is, of course, made and set in South Africa. ETA: I see that you specified planets other than Earth. Let me think on that for a minute… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/3 "2015-04-19T12:01:55Z")
I can’t say for certain, but I’d look to authors from the southern hemisphere, who would write what they know, giving their worlds seasons and years that match their experience. Australia and NZ and South Africa have loads of genre authors. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/4 "2015-04-19T12:19:42Z")
Off the top of my head: The Palm, the setting of Guy Gavirel Kay’s _Tigana_, is in the southern hemisphere of its world. The continent of Ansalon on the world of Krynn, the setting of the _Dragonlance_ stories and games, is also southern. The unnamed continent from Gene Wolfe’s\* New Sun\* books may or may not be a South America of 57 million years in the future; it’s definitely gets warmer as the hero travels north. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/5 "2015-04-19T12:29:57Z")
Harry Turtledove’s [Darkness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkness_Series) series takes place on a large continent called Derlavai which is in the southern half of its planet. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/6 "2015-04-21T09:22:44Z")
Thanks for the info. Notice all of them are fantasy. You’d think some SF stories would be set in the southern hemisphere somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/7 "2015-04-21T10:53:39Z")
**Kim Stanley Robinson** ’s Mars trilogy has large sections set in the southern hemisphere, but also at least as much in the north and the tropics… I think half of **Stephen Baxter** ’s recent sf novel _Proxima_ is set in that planet’s southern hemisphere. (The other half is set in various, mainly off-planet, locations.) ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/8 "2015-04-21T11:31:47Z")
Just curious–what leads you to seek specifically southern-hemispherical SF? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/9 "2015-04-21T13:19:40Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The unnamed continent from Gene Wolfe’s\* New Sun\* books may or may not be a South America of 57 million years in the future; it’s definitely gets warmer as the hero travels north. And the Ascians – “people with no shadows”, i.e., living on the equator – are to the north of Nessus. I’m fairly sure the river Gyoll is analogous to the far-far-future Amazon, placing the Commonwealth lies in far-far-future Brazil. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/10 "2015-04-21T15:11:29Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Thanks for the info. Notice all of them are fantasy. You’d think some SF stories would be set in the southern hemisphere somewhere. It’s kind of hard to tell. Most authors don’t say which hemisphere their stories are set in. You could presume that half of the books which are set on another planet and don’t say otherwise are set in the southern half of their planet. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/11 "2015-04-21T16:15:34Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I’m looking for fantasy or science fiction that takes place in the southern hemisphere of an extraterrestrial or imaginary planet. . . . “Southern” defined how? As the hemisphere with less land-mass than the one on the other side of the equator, or what? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/12 "2015-04-21T16:23:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > . . . “Southern” defined how? As the hemisphere with less land-mass than the one on the other side of the equator, or what? Defined as being on the side of the equator closer to the counterclockwise pole. In other words, where the sun rises in the east, and south is colder than north. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/13 "2015-04-21T16:31:47Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Defined as being on the side of the equator closer to the counterclockwise pole. > > In other words, where the sun rises in the east, and south is colder than north. So, if you’re standing on the equator facing the sunrise on any planet, “north” is always to your left and “south” to your right? This is an established astronomical convention? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/14 "2015-04-21T17:06:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So, if you’re standing on the equator facing the sunrise on any planet, “north” is always to your left and “south” to your right? This is an established astronomical convention? I’m pretty sure this _is_ an established astronomical convention. Though the [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_of_astronomical_bodies) defines it in two different ways, only one of which is the “right hand rule” you describe. Most of Starship Troopers takes place in the southern hemisphere of an imaginary future Earth, if that counts. Rio de Janeiro I believe. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/15 "2015-04-21T18:10:51Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Most of Starship Troopers takes place in the southern hemisphere of an imaginary future Earth, if that counts. Rio de Janeiro I believe. Well, that’s the movie. In the book, we find out on the last page that while Johnny Rico’s mother happened to be in Buenos Aires when the bugs hit it (with an atomic bomb, not an asteroid), his home town is actually somewhere in the Philippines. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/16 "2015-04-21T20:09:49Z")
Garry Kilworth’s “Navigator Kings” series (of which I have only read the first) is set in an alternate, fantasised Earth where the UK has been swapped with New Zealand, and is set in Polynesia. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/17 "2015-04-21T20:37:07Z")
The Pern series has a vast Southern continent that seems to cover the South Pole, in that they circumnavigate the planet by following its coastline and never find any ocean south of it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/18 "2015-04-22T00:58:09Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Thanks for the info. Notice all of them are fantasy. You’d think some SF stories would be set in the southern hemisphere somewhere. Much of THE MAN WHO USED THE UNIVERSE is set _“off the coast of Evenwaith’s southern continent”_, with interludes on Earth – namely, future South America. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/19 "2015-04-22T02:05:29Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Just curious–what leads you to seek specifically southern-hemispherical SF? Scientific research. Do you think my paper, _Northern Hemispheric Bias in Inhabited Planets of the Multiverse_, would be better submitted to _Nature_ or _Science_? > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s kind of hard to tell. Most authors don’t say which hemisphere their stories are set in. You could presume that half of the books which are set on another planet and don’t say otherwise are set in the southern half of their planet. No assumptions. If the hemisphere is not indicated either directly of indirectly, just ignore it. > [@DrCube](#): > > I’m pretty sure this _is_ an established astronomical convention. Though the [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_of_astronomical_bodies) defines it in two different ways, only one of which is the “right hand rule” you describe. Ignore what that crazy IAU came up with as a definition of north. Just use the “right-hand rule”. > [@](#): > > Most of Starship Troopers takes place in the southern hemisphere of an imaginary future Earth, if that counts. Rio de Janeiro I believe. Earth, whether past, present, future, or magical, does not count. Or rather it only counts as one planet and we already know which hemisphere the population is concentrated in… > [@Smeghead](#): > > The Pern series has a vast Southern continent that seems to cover the South Pole, in that they circumnavigate the planet by following its coastline and never find any ocean south of it. I stopped reading Pern books quite a few years ago and never read about this. It doesn’t matter though. Most of Pern’s population is in the north so it has a northern bias. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032/20 "2015-04-22T14:33:30Z")
Just out of curiosity, **dtilque,** why are you looking for this? The difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres has certain cultural and historical importance on Earth, but of course that would not apply on any other planet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-hemispherical-f-sf/718032.md?page=2)